Sunday, July 6, 2014

Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie

Tabula Rasa is billed as A Crime Novel of the Roman Empire.It is the sixth book in the Medicus (ruso) Series,
which is set in Ancient Roman Britain, and which features a Roman military
doctor, Ruso, and his native-British wife, Tilla.

Roman Centurion During the Building of Hadrian's Wall Detail of Mural of the History of Northumbria

Rich with historical and cultural details, the story in
Tabula Rasa begins quickly and progresses at a steady pace, expertly presenting
the players, their histories, and their present circumstances.Ruso is stationed at a camp by a quarry that
provides the stone for Hadrian's Wall.Doctor (Medicus) Ruso is the medical officer who must treat the injured
workmen, soldiers and various locals.

Emperor Hadrian's wall is being built on the new permanent
northern border of the Roman Empire.Consolidating the Empire's territory, giving up land that was too costly
to control, and fortifying the borders against barbarian attacks was Hadrian's
wisest policy.But the seizing of land
for the wall, eminent domain seizures, did not make any friends for the Romans
among the locals.

The third-person-limited narration puts us into the mind of
one character per chapter, usually Ruso, sometimes Tilla, and sometimes other
characters.We meet Ruso first, and
learn about his character and life, while he deals with a medical emergency
that risks his own life.

If you follow the series, which I highly recommend if you
are interested in historical novels set in the Ancient Roman era, and which is why I requested a review copy of the book, you know that
Ruso and Tilla's relationship often mirrors the relationship between the Roman
colonizers and the native Britains.The
two cultures are very different, making peaceful relations difficult.

Tilla, Ruso's wife, gives us the wise-native
perspective.She's lived among Romans
long enough to know their ways, but she does not wish to abandon her own,
Celtic, ways.The native way of thinking
is one of the pleasures of the Medicus Series.Here is an old Celt explaining to his family about Roman commerce versus
Celtic self-sufficiency:

"The Romans have to use coins," he explained,
"because they cannot feed themselves on what they grow."

Ruso has a difficult relationship with his wife's culture:

Despite trying to learn his wife's language, his energies
had been concentrated not on understanding British habits but on weaning her
away from them.Recent attempts to mix
with the natives had been like leaping into a vast pit of ignorance and finding
it filled with many more ways of getting things wrong than most of his comrades
could possibly imagine.

The mystery or crime aspect of this historical novel lingers
in the background for the first quarter of the book, then picks up pace.I always enjoy the hospital scenes the best;
Ruso has to deal with the typical military bureaucracy and medical incompetence
in scenes that ring true today as much as in the past.I also enjoy the scenes with Ruso and Tilla
interacting, which I would have liked more of in this book.

Here is a beautiful, stunning computerized recreation of the location for Tabula Rasa, two minutes long.

In Tabula Rasa, the author brings back recurring characters from
the earlier books.My favorite is Ruso's
over-promoted, under-performing, marrying-for-advancement colleague and friend
Valens.

Valens looked disappointed."I was hoping this might turn into one of your escapades.Finding a body and going around accusing
people of murdering it."

"I haven't found a body.Nobody has."

Valens scrutinized him for a moment."Pity," he said."You've been so much more entertaining since
you met Tilla and adopted the native tendency to overdramatize."

Two other construction projects of Hadrian's

At midpoint in the book, a darker story emerges when a child
goes missing.Tilla reflects darkly:

You brought a child into the world and you gave a hostage to
the gods.

Tilla and Ruso find themselves in dangerous situations,
apart from each other, as the book moves to the climax and conclusion.There is a very satisfying ending, and an
expert set-up for the next book.The
series featuring Roman Medicus Ruso and his Celtic wife Tilla is definitely set
to continue.

The author is a skilled writer, at times poetic, at times
funny, at times poignant.The editing is
expert, and the punctuation elegant.The
Medicus books are books to savor, not fast reads.A reader can become immersed in the ancient
lifestyle, bringing the past closer to the present, and reminding us that human
nature is the greatest constant over the centuries.That is generally what fans of historical
novels look for, and with Tabula Rasa, as with all the Medicus books, the fans
are never disappointed.

From the book's description, which gives far too much of the
story away, so avoid reading it if you wish to avoid spoilers:

In the newest novel featuring Medicus Gaius Petreius Ruso,
the Romans are building Hadrian’s Great Wall amid strife with the Britons, when
first Ruso’s clerk and then a native boy disappear.

The medicus Ruso and his wife Tilla are back in the
borderlands of Britannia, this time helping to tend the builders of Hadrian’s
Great Wall. Having been forced to move off their land, the Britons are
distinctly on edge and are still smarting from the failure of a recent
rebellion that claimed many lives.

Then Ruso’s recently arrived clerk, Candidus, goes missing. A native boy thinks
he sees a body being hidden inside the wall’s half-finished stonework, and a
worrying rumor begins to spread. When the soldiers ransack the nearby farms
looking for Candidus, Tilla’s tentative friendship with a local family turns to
anger and disappointment. It’s clear that the sacred rites to bless her
marriage to Ruso will have to wait. Tensions only increase when Branan, the
family’s youngest son, also vanishes. He was last seen in the company of a lone
and unidentified soldier who claimed he was taking the boy to see Tilla.

As Ruso and Tilla try to solve the mystery of the two disappearances—while at
the same time struggling to keep the peace between the Britons and the
Romans—an intricate scheme involving slavery, changed identities, and fur
trappers emerges, and it becomes imperative that Ruso find Branan before it’s
too late.

Ancient map showing Hadrian's Wall dividing Scotland

What was Ancient Roman doctoring like? Here is a few minutes of it to give you a taste, with Horrible (Humorous) Histories:

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